The Soul of Discernment: A Spiritual Practice for Communities and Institutions

The Soul of Discernment provides concrete steps for groups of people who work together and need to make important decisions: church sessions, nonprofit hiring committees, etc. Liebert calls this process the Social Discernment Cycle, a process for seeking God’s call in a particular situation. “It is called ‘social’ because it deals primarily with human communities in their social-structural, rather than interpersonal aspects,” Liebert explains. “It is a cycle because one completed round of discernment prepares for the next. The Social Discernment Cycle is particularly apt for any discernment that involves a structure, system, or institution.”

This book helps groups work through this cycle to answer the question, “How is God leading us, individually or together, to act in this particular moment in our organization?”